The Living Ghost At Hogwarts
by kissables333
Summary: She appeared out of nowhere to him one autumn afternoon.
1. Chapter 1

Another new story...that I don't have time to write.

Its just an introduction. That's why its so short.

Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter.

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Harper Collins.

Harper never knew her parents. Her father had died when she was a baby; she didn't even know who her mother was. Not that she minded. Harper didn't want to know who her parents were. She didn't want to know what they were like. She didn't care. Harper didn't care about a lot of things.

She didn't care about the people she lived with in the stead of her parents. Being her guardians was an obligation, not a task they chose for themselves. It certainly wasn't one they enjoyed.

Harper didn't care for friends, or people, for that matter. No one ever really cares. Harper despised a lot of things. But one of the most prominent was relationships. She hated them. Of course, she'd never been _in _one. Her heart was locked away, guarded by her misanthropic views.

She found her escape in alternate realities; fiction that captured her attention. Harper lived in books, fiction to be exact. She lived for the heartbreak of the story. That one moment that destroys everything, because she knows that's the closest to reality these storybook tales will ever get. She hated reality and yet she lived for the single point that was as close to reality as it would get.

She wasn't a know-it-all. She kept her intelligence to herself. Harper's cynical attitude spoke for itself; even when she didn't speak at all. People stayed away.

Harper Collins was different. She didn't _need_ **anyone**. She was like a ghost, she knew almost everything about everyone in the school, but no one knew anything about her. No one noticed her.

Harry Potter.

Everyone knew him. Everyone knew everything about him. Harry had no blood family, except the Dursleys…but they didn't really count for much. But he had the Weasleys; they were the best family that could ever be wanted. He had the best friends anyone could want. Though…as for girls Harry didn't have the best luck. But Harry could love, could care; that was what was so important about him.

Harper knew all about Harry. But he had no clue about her. She seemed to appear out of nowhere one autumn afternoon.


	2. Chapter 2

Realistically, don't expect updates until the summer. I have no time for anything.

This is short, yes. This is just a quick little update where Harry sees Harper for the first time.

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Harry Potter was being forced to go to the library. Hermione refused to help with his paper, saying that it would do him good to do his own work. And so he was forced to live among the stacks of the school library for an entire autumn afternoon researching for his Charms paper. Hermione had, annoyingly, pointed out that if Harry had simply paid attention in class, he wouldn't have to research.

Harry soon found himself in the very back, most deserted part of the library. Given the amount of dust, he believed people rarely ventured back there. He had grabbed two books off a shelf to start and went to find a table.

He had seen Seamus and Neville sitting at a table on his way in but knew that he didn't really want to be around people at the moment. He decided to keep to the back of the library and dropped his books on a table nearby the shelf that he would need to revisit often. As he began to read, he soon found himself extremely distracted.

Harry had never seen her before, not any time that he could recall, at least. But now, he wished he had seen her many times before.

The girl was sitting at the table next to his, reading a book. Her long brown hair fell, probably purposely, into her face. Harry found himself desperately wanting to see her eyes.

She wasn't wearing a uniform, though neither was he given that it was a Saturday, so he couldn't tell what House she was in but he guessed that she was at least a fourth year. Working was no longer an option. She had captured his attention by just _sitting_ there.

Suddenly, his view of her was blocked.

"Hey Harry." Ron mumbled from his seat across from Harry.

"Hermione won't help you either?" Harry asked.

Ron shook his head and looked peculiarly at Harry while his friend kept trying to see around Ron by moving from side to side.

"Alright, Harry?" Ron asked, wondering about what was wrong with his friend.

"I'm just trying to see…" Then he saw the empty seat she'd been in. Somehow she'd managed to leave without him seeing her go.

"…Nothing." He sighed, feeling suddenly deflated.


	3. Chapter 3

Update: 48 of 89

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It was rare that anyone voluntarily ventured to the back of the library.

Harper, of course, did not mind the solitude. She enjoyed the isolation from the dull and mind-numbing conversations of her peers.

While others spent much time outside—soaking up the autumn weather before it faded into frost—Harper clung to the quiet and serene air of the library. She did not care for sitting outside with friends—not that she had any friends to sit with. It must be known that Harper did not want for friends; she found friendship to be a worthless endeavor. Forsaking as much human contact as possible, Harper clung to the quiet of the library and the glory of the written word.

However, Harper's much beloved solitude had been interrupted almost every weekend and some weekdays since late September. No one ever came to the back of the library; that is why Harper sat there. It appeared to Harper, however, that a particular black-haired boy had been frequenting the dustier depths of the library as of late.

She knew who he was, of course. Harper distained social contact, however that did not imply a general ignorance of the world around her.

Harper had seen that boy in the library but only usually accompanied by friends. Harper never _purposefully _listened in, of course. She always managed to hear what others were talking about because she went unnoticed. Harper stayed under the radar of her peers and thus managed to hear a lot of the shadier gossip floating around Hogwarts.

Harper knew exactly who that boy was. She didn't understand why the boy was alone in the library; from what she knew of him, he had two best friends that he was usually with. Harper knew all about the boy. She knew his name but everyone in the wizarding world knew that. It seems that most of the gossip surrounded the boy, especially last year when everyone claimed he was insane.

The boy always sat at the same table next to hers; he always sat in the same seat facing her. Harper had never bothered to meet his eyes but she saw him in her peripheral vision. She had heard at her house—as it was anything but a home—about what had happened to the boy's godfather. If Harper had a heart she might have felt sympathy for the boy.

But she did not—or at least she repressed it very well. For now, all she cared about was the boy intruding on her space—not that he ever said anything to her. He just stared. She could feel his gaze. And it bothered her; it unnerved her. Harper was always invisible at Hogwarts. She didn't want anyone to _see _her, especially Harry Potter.


	4. Chapter 4

Update: 49 of 89

Another of my favorite stories. :)

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Harry could not help himself. He wanted to see more of her. He wanted to know what she was like but he had not a clue as to what to say to her. Harry did not know her. He didn't even know her name—but he wanted to. He wanted to know everything about her.

There was an innate fragility about her and yet—at the same time—she appeared to be encased in a shroud of hostility that kept all others at bay. Ever since he saw her in the library that day in September, she had been on his mind.

Harry looked for her outside the walls of the library but he never found her. He didn't have any classes with her and he knew he would remember seeing her before. There was no way he could miss someone like her. Harry searched for her during meals but he never saw her at any of the tables. He looked for her in the hallways but he never saw her.

Harry knew nothing about the girl except what she looked like. Her image had been burned into his mind when many nights spent peering at her from over the top of a book. Harry couldn't even tell what house she was in; even after all of this time he had never seen her decorated with any of the House insignia. He always saw her in jeans and a nondescript t-shirt—nothing that told him anything about her.

Finally, Harry decided, he would talk to her. He got up from the table and then quickly lost his nerve. So he decided to hide among the shelves as he gathered his thoughts before speaking to her. Hiding behind a bookshelf, he leaned slightly to peer around the edge to look at her.

She sat quietly as she always did: with her nose buried in a book. Harry sighed—why couldn't he think of a single thing to say to her? She was not even intimidating. She was just sitting there for Merlin's sake! Suddenly, the brown haired girl looked up and Harry immediately busied himself with pretending to look at the titles of the books before him.

His heart was racing; she had caught him staring, but he had seen her eyes. They were, he found, a peculiar grey-blue. Harry smiled at his little victory. He now knew something about her that he didn't know before.

Slowly, he leaned slowly to glance at her again, but she was gone.


	5. Chapter 5

Harper wondered if it would finally be the night where he spoke to her. The boy had spent most of September and half of October sitting in the same seat across from her, doing nothing but staring. It was irritating her, to say the least.

She just wanted him to talk to her so that he could see for himself that he was just wasting his time on a girl like her. Her hopes of him finally gaining enough courage to speak to her were sparked as he appeared to stand determinedly from his seat.

The boy—famous for his bravery and courage—took two steps toward her table before he quickly bailed out and moved behind the nearest bookcase. Harper scoffed in her mind—this was the dashing Harry Potter? He left much to be desired.

Over the top of her book, she watched as his messy stock of black hair appeared from behind the edge of the bookcase before quickly disappearing. He was not being too stealthy in his surveillance. Harper decided to try initiating _some _form of contact that would encourage his speaking to her. The sooner he spoke to her, the sooner he would vacate the back of the library and leave her alone—like the rest of the world.

Harper kept her gaze steadily on where his face would soon appear. When the stock of hair appeared again, her blue-grey eyes met his green eyes. The boy's eyes widened in shock; he had not expected that. His head quickly disappeared behind the bookcase again.

Harper had been sent reeling from their brief exchange; quickly, she shoved her things into her bag and left the library without being noticed. Once she was safely away, she leaned against the cold stone wall and closed her eyes while breathing in deeply.

She had startled him when she met his gaze but his eyes had startled her. His eyes had ripped through her to her very soul and had left her breathless. Every ounce of her felt as if it was on fire; she wondered if that was how he felt. Was that why he had taken to watching her in the library? Did he feel the same?

Shaking her head, she pushed away from the wall and walked to her common room. Giving the password, she entered with her head down as she remained invisible on the couch. She passed by her second cousin lounging across the black couch with that annoying girl practically on his lap.

Harper shivered as she entered her empty dormitory. The fire never managed to heat the frigid dungeons. Sighing, she went to her trunk and dug inside it for the trinket she was looking for.

Running her fingers over the locket, she sighed and wished for some explanation of it all.


End file.
